Home Remodeling: It's official

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! We've been spending Father's Day with Joel giving us a gift of love: insulating and hanging drywall. Our home remodeling project has been prompted by a couple of factors, specifically:

1.) Our upstairs window leaks and needs to be removed; the previous owner bought a used window and jammed it into a hole too small for it -- snapping the casing. This window has leaked. We've had a repairman come in to fix it but he can only patch it since the window is broken. We know it needs to be replaced. This "window" is an over-sized sliding glass door that used to have a 1 foot-deep balcony in front of it. The purpose of this door? Moving furniture up and down stairs -- furniture can't make it up the staircase because the stairs do a tight 180' turn in a small hallway. So, the deck was taken off to get furniture up and, then again, to fix the leak -- we've just kept it off until it's repaired.

2.) The stairs weren't constructed of the best quality, have huge gaps in the spindles, and, as stated, we can't get furniture up and down. . . Lovely.

3.) The front door was built into the staircase and so, to repair the stairs, we'd need to move the front door.

4.) We talked to a siding company because we've been having insulation issues and wanted an estimate -- they offered to move the front door for us. Awesome!!!

Hence, the project was kicked off! They moved the door, removed one of our downstairs windows, and sided the house. We're mid-fix-up: We still need to tape, mud, texture, paint, paint the gutters & garage door, etc. etc. etc. . . . Isn't that always the case?

However, both Joel and I feel some sense of excitement that we're officially starting the repairs AND we're making this home more OUR home. Know what I mean? :>)

Today's activities: Joel insulating and me making SEVERAL trips to the store! Man, I guess we need to add gas money to the budget for remodeling! Two trips to Safeway, three trips to Bi-Mart, one trip to Ace Hardware, and a trip to Jerry's Home Improvement store. . . Ugh! Team that with the laundry, a couple loads of dishes, making breakfast fajitas (got the recipe from Dan Wangsgard's wife, Muriel's blog -- LOVED it! Thanks!!), and then picking up Mexican food for dinner. . . . Did you catch that? LOTS of Mexican food: This meant that, as I was holding the sheetrock for Joel -- in close quarters -- him forgetting to put on deodorant today, he was feeling the beans. Phhhhhewwwwy!!! Baaaaadddd Joel! He and the boys were busting up laughing! oh, to be boys!

So, here's some of the before and after picts for you. Enjoy! :>)

BEFORE: Front of the House

BEFORE: Two front windows -- we opted to remove one to put in the front door and to add to the structural stability of the front of the house . (There's a 4"x4" between the two windows and that's it!)

BEFORE: Front door

Don't know if you can see it or not, but here's the door embedded in the stairs. We couldn't open it all the way. Hmm. . .

Here's another view of the hinges. . .

AFTER: Where the front door was! (And Miss. Faith) :>)

AFTER: New front of the house; we'll also be adding shutters soon :>)

A fun little splurge: We got a key-less lock to help out the kids. Very cool!



Here's some pictures of today's work

Oh, the fun of older houses, built by amateurs! They had carved the outlet into the 4x4. . . What were they thinking?!?!

Finished sheet-rocking the old door -- woo-hoo!!

Here's a glance at the stairs (and me holding up the sheetrock while Joel went for the drill).

Gotta love this one! It was funny: They'd filled the edges of the door frame with expanding foam and were sanding it down. Isaac (on the chair) was sanding it down onto Elijah's head ;>) When Elijah caught on he said it was like it was snowing. . . Glad they were all good sports!

The old window space now has drywall! Woo-hoo! High-five! Another accomplishment! :>)

Elsewhere around the house, the boys were digging holes for new fence posts. . . Alas, the old posts had to be cut out for the new siding: one was planted firmly in the foundation of the garage and the other gate didn't have a post (the previous owner had screwed the hinges into the house) . . . Lovely. The boys were AWESOME!!! Hard-workers who didn't complain too much :>) I was very proud of them :>)

And, finally, Faith and I planted the blueberry plant that she got from her class field trip to a nursery. She was very happy to be watering her blueberry plant :>)

So, there's a bit of our day; I hope that you had a great time too! HAPPY FATHER's DAY!!!